Jason Statham 'faced death' on Expendables set

The 47-year-old actor was shooting the latest instalment in the action franchise when the brakes on the truck he was driving failed.

'He faced death. He was test-driving a three-tonne truck and the brakes ran out'

Jason was then plunged 18m (60ft) into the icy water below after the stunt went wrong.

“He faced death. He was test-driving a three-tonne truck and the brakes ran out,” co-star Sylvester Stallone explained to British newspaper The Mirror.

"It went down 60ft into the Black Sea and became impaled.

“Luckily we had taken the doors off before. If anyone else had been in that truck we would have been dead because we were all wearing heavy boots and gun belts.”

It was only Jason’s diving skills which prevented his watery demise.

Prior to becoming famous after his film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels was released in 1998, Jason made a name for himself as a professional diver and competed for England in the 1990 Commonwealth Games.

"We would have drowned. But because Jason is an Olympic-quality diver he got out of it,” Sylvester recalled.

Jason wasn’t the only cast member to suffer as a result of a stunt going wrong on set.

Sylvester previously revealed he was forced to have a metal plate inserted into his back after sustaining an injury during filming.

“I usually grade the quality of the film by the intensity of the injury,” he said.

“In this one I ended up really taking a fall on my back and ended up having some metal inserted in there so if I'm squeaky then it's not my shoes, it's my back!”